The present invention relates to cooling arrangements in general, and more particularly to a cooling arrangement for use in a machine for treating a thermoplastic material, especially molten glass, for cooling a forming tool by a pressurized cooling fluid, especially air.
There are already known cooling arrangements of this type for use in molding or similarly shaping machines. In such machines, forming tools are being used which are mounted on the machine frame for pivoting between their open and closed positions. The cooling fluid for cooling such forming tools or mold is supplied through a supply conduit which is stationary with respect to the machine frame and has to be transferred to the pivotably mounted forming tool or mold irrespective of the position of the latter relative to the machine frame.
One cooling arrangement which is capable of accomplishing this task of transferring the fluid from the stationary supply conduit to the movable tool or mold is known from the Sales Bulletin No. 7 of the Emhart Zurich S.A. company of Zurich, Switzerland, entitled "Mould Holders with Internal Cooling" 191-6950. In the machine disclosed in this publication, there is provided a connecting conduit between the supply conduit and the mold to be cooled, the connecting conduit being constructed as a telescopic tube structure, the two free ends of which are connected to a part of a hollow spherical element which is open at both ends, respectively. Each of the hollow spherical elements is received in a socket having a partly spherical recess, the sockets being secured to the supply conduit and to the fluid distributing box, respectively. An important disadvantage of this construction is the relatively small range of angular displacement of the fluid distributing box and thus of the forming tool, which is predetermined by the use of the spherical joints. A result of this limitation of the angular displacement range is that the overall axial length of the mold must not be less than a predetermined value. Furthermore, when the forming tools have a relatively small axial length, the fluid can, in the final analysis, be introduced only at the axial end portion of the respective forming tool, at such a large distance between the supply conduit and the fluid distributing box as possible.